1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to the presentation of electronic advertisements, such as via the Internet and, more particularly to the presentation of targeted advertisements in a manner that does not track an individual's Internet page navigation and history.
2. General Background of the Invention
One issue facing the electronic advertising industry is the trade-off between maximizing the amount of entertaining or desirable content that an individual exploring the Internet wants to see against the amount of advertising that is overlaid on top of or near such entertaining or desirable content.
Escalating the issue, many online advertisers have implemented rather obtuse advertising systems that are often perceived as annoying to the end user, including pop-up ads and in text callout balloons. Unfortunately, such systems necessarily force the participant's attention to be split between the advertisement and the non-advertising content. This split is often less than desirable to all parties involved.
Many current consumers of digital media want to experience, watch, and/or consume the content of their choice at the time of their choosing. Therefore, many of these consumers do not particularly appreciate advertising methods that more or less randomly interrupt the experience of the participant. Thus, a need exists for a technology that simultaneously satisfies the interests of advertisers in terms of their desires to broaden their exposure base and keep consumers informed of new products and services without overwhelming the end user, and media viewer with unwanted, potentially annoying, unwelcome, and unexpected advertising presentations.
A further drawback of many contemporary electronic advertising systems is that it is not uncommon for an individual or entity to be offended by advertising content that is presented side-by-side with primary non-advertising content. Thus, there is a need for advertising systems that give unprecedented levels of user control to the end media viewer or individual exploring the Internet.
Another drawback of many contemporary systems is that a significant number of contemporary digital advertising systems leverage some type of algorithmic data mining, whereby the advertiser generates, buys, or records personal information such as web browser history, shopping trends, profile and social network picture viewing statistics, age, gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious persuasion, computer software and hardware configurations, indications of salary or generic financial success, and numerous other examples of personal data. Many individuals express an extremely strong desire for such tracking technologies to become rare, optional, or even non-existent.
Accordingly, a digital advertising technology that is completely anonymous while at the same time offers advertisers some form of tangible assurance that their advertising messages are targeted would be beneficial.
The present invention provides a method to offer some tangible assurance to advertisers that their content is being viewed by individuals who are interested and more likely to buy the merchandise being embodied in the advertisement than a random individual would be.